Contents

The second season made frequent use of flashbacks, revealing Bartlet's campaign for the presidency in the period prior to events covered in the first season. The first two episodes, "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part I and "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part II", showed how many of the central characters were introduced to Josiah Bartlet, his campaign for the presidential nomination, and his election. Aaron Sorkin originally planned to have such flashbacks as a major part of the entire season, but budget and logistical demands prevented this.

The second season had star billing for eight major roles. Seven of these were filled by returning main cast members from the first season, while Moira Kelly departed the cast at the end of the previous season. Rob Lowe once again receives star billing, while Martin Sheen receives the "and" credit for his role as President Josiah Bartlet. The rest of the ensemble, now including previously recurring Janel Moloney, are credited alphabetically.

The second season details the period between the end of President Bartlet's second year in office and the middle of his third. It covers a wider legislative array than the first season does, and presents issues including the rights of hate groups and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

In this season, The West Wing characters are shown as being more capable of legislating thanks to an increased approval rating (described as a temporary "bubble" due to the shooting that ends the first season). Also vital to this theme is the new doctrine for legislating laid out in the first season episode "Let Bartlet Be Bartlet."

The multiple sclerosis arc (also introduced in the first season) becomes central late in the second season as staff members are introduced one-by-one to the President's ailment and the public made aware. This theme remains central to the entire series.

Mrs. Landingham, the longtime secretary of President Bartlet, dies in the penultimate episode, "18th and Potomac." In the final episode, "Two Cathedrals," Mrs. Landingham's funeral is central as is the question of whether the President will run for re-election.

The season ends with the President announcing his multiple sclerosis, and concludes just moments before he answers a reporter's question: "Mr. President, can you tell us right now if you'll be seeking a second term?"

During the aftermath of the shooting in Rosslyn (in Arlington), it becomes obvious that President Bartlet took one round, that Josh sustained a serious injury, that Charlie, the apparent target, remained unharmed, and that the two shooters died at the scene. Gina reports an accomplice and a signal to the shooters from the ground. The motorcade heads first toward the White House and then to the George Washington University Hospital; Zoey, Leo, and Abbey join the President at the hospital. Josh, in a critical condition, arrives in an ambulance, and Sam and Toby join the crowd. As Josh goes under general anesthesia, he starts to experience a series of flashbacks – to the time when he ran the campaign for the nomination of Sen. Hoynes, the time when Leo urged Josh to go to Nashua, New Hampshire, to check out Gov. Bartlet, and the time when Josh recruited Sam onto the staff. Meanwhile a high-level meeting takes place in the situation room. Toby also gets a flashback about Nashua. A large group of state and federal cops grab the accomplice. C.J. recalls the time when Toby, on behalf of Leo, invited her to join the Bartlet presidential campaign; she has several problems with the press corps and with her own memory. During a flashback about the campaign in New Hampshire, Gov. Bartlet explains the meaning of "What's next?", and Donna, who had driven from Wisconsin, introduces herself to Josh as his new assistant, then admits that she "may have overstated a little", yet he puts her on the staff. Eventually, after more flashbacks, Josh awakes from anesthesia, and he weakly asks the President, "What's next?"

Josh, speaking from his hospital bed, advises C.J. at the West Wing. Since the shooting the job-approval rate of the Bartlet administration has risen from 51% to 81%. While the senior staff prepares for the midterm elections, 12 weeks away, much debate and discussion take place. Sam strongly encourages one of his law-school classmates, Tom, to run for a seat in the Congress. However, C.J. and Leo separately learn damaging facts about Tom, so Leo directs Sam to cancel the support for Tom. Later Josh returns to his apartment, where Donna visits him, often taking lunch and papers. The President takes an unusual interest in a school-board election. Toby remains in a morose mood while he seeks to act against hate groups, and the President speaks with him. The President makes an appearance at a reception for radio-talk-show hosts, where he engages, questions, and instructs a radio counselor. Charlie has behaved toward Zoey in a cool and distant way, but he changes again. C.J., Sam, Toby, and Donna chat with Josh on his front steps, and they share a patriotic toast.

Josh returns to work. On a TV political talk show a young woman Southern Republican lawyer, Ainsley Hayes (Emily Procter), soundly trounces Sam on the subject of competing bills under consideration in the House for funding of improvements in public education. The president of a fictional African nation, representing several African countries, visits the White House during a summit of officials of US pharmaceutical firms in an attempt to make certain drugs more accessible to HIV-blighted regions of Africa. At the direction of President Bartlet, Leo hires Ainsley as an associate counsel. Tragic news arrives from Equatorial Kundu.

Josh runs into trouble with an insurance carrier over its refusal to pay $50,000 of his hospital bill; while Sam lends a hand, he makes a novel proposal. President Bartlet uses many takes to tape a radio address. Ainsley meets her new boss, Lionel Tribbey (John Larroquette), the White House counsel, who puts on quite a show. The President receives exciting news about his health, and he promptly seeks to act on it but runs into a delay. C.J. sends a pointed message to an uncooperative general; later she suggests to him a change in his plans. Leo shows Ainsley to her office, "such as it is". Lionel welcomes her in his own way, and he assigns her first task, which takes her into conflict with two other staff lawyers; Sam deals with the conflict. The President tells C.J. to let the general out of his box. Sam, Josh, C.J., and Toby help Ainsley with the decor in her office.

An announcement by a senator makes it appear that the administration will likely have no chance of a favorable vote on the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in the next session of the Senate, so Josh, Sam, and Toby urge President Bartlet to call a lame-duck session. C.J. intentionally leaks to Danny that the President has begun to consider that possibility. A Ukrainian politician, while drunk, has arrived at the White House, and he demands to speak with the President; Josh meets him and a companion and deals with them. Ainsley goes with Sam to Capitol Hill for meetings. Sam asks Ainsley to summarize a 22-page position paper; she does so and more. Toby meets with a lame-duck senator, who gives him bad news. Leo arranges for the President to speak briefly with the foreign politician. The President decides not to call a special session.

The President is taking a Red-eye flight with Toby, Sam, and C.J. to Portland, Oregon, to deliver an education address. At the White House, Josh spars with a gay Republican congressman over a bill on same-sex marriage, and Leo monitors a situation involving a U.S. company that is selling black-market oil from Iraq because the sanctions are a joke. Sam doubts his writing ability when he can't find an inspiring tone for a speech.

Just before Thanksgiving, a group of Chinese Christians who claim they're the victims of religious persecution are found trying to sneak into the United States, and President Bartlet must decide their fate. Leo's sister is up for a recess appointment but her views on school prayer put her and Leo at loggerheads.

31

9

"Galileo"

Alex Graves

Aaron Sorkin and Kevin Falls

November 29, 2000 (2000-11-29)

226209

NASA prepares to receive the first pictures from their new Mars probe, accompanied by a live broadcast with the President. Meanwhile, the Russian government covers up a missile silo fire, a report that the President doesn't like green beans poses an electoral problem in Oregon, and Josh investigates the consequences of honoring a man who called for Puerto Rican statehood. C.J. promotes a staffer to Deputy Press Secretary but then faces a slew of disappointed interviewees at a Kennedy Center concert.

Josh grows ever more anxious and volatile after his shooting, and is ordered by Leo to see a psychiatrist. C.J. uncovers a Nazi-looted painting at the White House and Sam voices support for tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. CellistYo-Yo Ma makes a guest appearance.

With Congress reconvening, the White House is planning a "leadership breakfast" to encourage bipartisan cooperation. Toby locks horns in negotiations with the Republican Majority Leader's new Chief of Staff on minimum wage, against C.J.'s wishes and to a truly disastrous end. Both Sam and Donna try, and fail, to impress an influential newspaper columnist.

Leo tries to convince President Bartlet of the importance of supporting a missile defense plan, while Lord John Marbury is appointed British ambassador to the United States. Toby and Sam clash over a speech the President gives to an environmental group. C.J. tries to talk a comedian out of embarrassing the Bartlet administration.

The President addresses the nation, and five DEA agents are taken hostage in Colombia. C.J. discovers an invited guest to the State of the Union speech has a questionable background, while Capital Beat does a three-hour show live from the West Wing. Josh, Joey Lucas (Marlee Matlin), and Donna run an important telephone survey that will influence a gun-control initiative the staff has been planning.

The President is put in a tricky spot when the Surgeon General makes questionable comments regarding the legalization of marijuana, and his daughter Ellie makes a comment supporting her to Danny Concannon. Toby spars anew with his ex-wife but finds a clever way to work on Social Security reform, and Sam gets tough with a film producer who took a cheap shot at the President.

The staff participates in "Big Block of Cheese Day," Toby is assigned to speak with a group of unruly anarchists protesting the WTO, and a friend of Donna asks Sam to consider a pardon request for an alleged Cold War spy.

Staffers are blindsided when an elderly Senator begins a Friday night filibuster before a vote on a crucial health care bill, until Donna discovers information that changes their perspective. Meanwhile, Toby is puzzled when the Vice President, normally a champion of the oil industry, volunteers to attack it for "price gouging", and Sam is alternately annoyed at and impressed by a feisty GAO intern.

40

18

"17 People"

Alex Graves

Aaron Sorkin

April 4, 2001 (2001-04-04)

226218

Toby is told about the President's multiple sclerosis, becoming the 17th person to know, and he and the President have a heated row over the matter. Meanwhile, the President considers an extensive security alert for the nation's airports, and staffers struggle to punch up a speech the President is set to give at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.

The President decides that he needs an opinion from White House Counsel Oliver Babish (Oliver Platt) on whether his MS cover-up constituted a criminal conspiracy. Meanwhile, an oil spill off the Delaware coast hits home to Sam, Josh must deal with a Mexican economic crisis, and C.J. searches for the source of a press leak about a possible change in the President's position on school vouchers.

42

20

"The Fall's Gonna Kill You"

Christopher Misiano

Teleplay: Aaron SorkinStory: Patrick Caddell

May 2, 2001 (2001-05-02)

226220

White House Counsel Oliver Babish questions C.J. and Abbey about the President's MS cover-up. The staff begins to develop a strategy to deal with the impending MS crisis. Josh learns of a problem with funding for the government's Big Tobacco lawsuit. Sam works on a speech involving a tax increase and is later told the MS story.

A crisis in Haiti takes much of the President and Leo's time, while the senior staff are planning the announcement of the President's MS. The democratically-elected new Haitian President is facing a military coup and the U.S. finds itself in the middle of the storm when a U.S. diplomat smuggles the new President into the safety of the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince. An evacuation operation turns deadly when U.S. soldiers shoot and kill several rebel Haitians who tried to stop a plane from taking off at the airport. Donna is told by Toby about the President's condition. The staff considers how to deal with the bad news of a poll by Joey Lucas that reveals voters have hugely negative reactions to the possibility of a politician having a potentially fatal disease and covering it up. The President agrees with Leo that he should have a discussion with the staff about whether or not to seek reelection. Josh follows up on his previous week's discovery that a Congressional lawsuit against major tobacco companies is running into funding problems. In a brief conversation with Mrs. Landingham, directly before she goes to collect her new car, the President says he'd like to have a word with her on her return. It is later revealed that she was killed in a car crash that occurred at 18th and Potomac, adjacent the main entrance to the Congressional Cemetery.

A tropical storm is bearing down on Washington on the day the President is to disclose to the American people that he has MS. The President attends Mrs. Landingham's funeral, beset with memories of how they met. Staffers must also fashion two responses to the question that is certain to be asked first at Bartlet's prime-time press conference: Will the President seek re-election?

The second season received 18 Emmy Award nominations for the 53rd Primetime Emmy Awards, winning a total of 8 awards. Consecutive wins included Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (Allison Janney), Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series (Thomas Schlamme for "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen"), and Outstanding Cinematography for a Single Camera Series (Thomas Del Ruth). Bradley Whitford won for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, and the series also won for Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series, Outstanding Single Camera Picture Editing for a Series, and Outstanding Single Camera Sound Mixing for a Series. Notable nominations included Martin Sheen and Rob Lowe for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, John Spencer and Richard Schiff for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, Stockard Channing for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, Oliver Platt for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series, Aaron Sorkin for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen", and Laura Innes for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for "Shibboleth".[1]